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Category Archives: Foreign Affairs

For once, it’s true that both sides are at fault

I can’t quite get my head around the charges and countercharges about anti-Semitism related to the current war in Israel. Recently a college president was forced to resign because she incorrectly (according to the right wing-there actually was no right answer that the Republicans would accept) answered a gotcha question from a Trump Republican, who […]

The Bard sums up the situation in Israel

A plague on both your houses!

Europe’s March of Folly

If you haven’t read Barbara Tuchman’s March of Folly, go read it. It should be required reading in high schools everywhere. Anyone who has read it can only shudder at the possibilities opening up in a Europe that is marching in tandem toward chaos. If this writer is correct, and I suspect he is, the […]

Credit where due

I have been known to be somewhat critical of Obama on occasion, such as when he sells out the 99.9% by pushing rotten “trade” deals designed to make the comfortable far more comfortable. So, it’s only fair that I give credit when due, and his step today giving full diplomatic recognition to Cuba deserves a […]

Doomed to repeat

Paul Krugman once again warns about the very real possibility that Europe’s democracies may crumble due to the economic woes being visited upon them by the banker class: The important point here is that it’s not just the Greeks who are mad as Hellas (their own name for their country) and aren’t going to take […]

A mystery

So, it looks like John McCain may get his war, inasmuch as the Congress has voted to authorize U.S. aid to the rebels in Syria. The rebels are the “good guys”. For the moment. Anyway, this got me to thinking. It is an article of faith among Republicans that the government can’t do anything right. […]

Doomed to repeat?

The New York Times reported yesterday morning that the latest beheading of an American journalist “raised the pressure on the president to order military strikes on the group in its sanctuary in Syria.” The Boston Globe had an article that made a similar point. I've criticized Obama quite often, but on foreign policy he has […]

Bad Moon Rising

Michael Hudson on the recent European elections: The US press and newscasts make it appear that Europeans have voted against poor immigrants and foreigners. What they voted against the super-rich, the oligarchy. The “foreigners” being opposed include the United States insisting on drawing NATO into its wars in Libya,Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan – and now, […]

Demagogues hard at work in Europe

This morning Paul Krugman warns once again about the rising of the right in Europe, the result of, ironically enough, conservative to right wing (in normal times) economic nostrums. It’s hard to imagine war in today’s Europe, which has coalesced around democratic values and even taken its first steps toward political union. Indeed, as I […]

An outrageous suggestion

The usual Congressional suspects are beating the drums of war regarding the Ukraine. I have an absolutely absurd suggestion, which I nonetheless advance in all seriousness. Were I Obama, I would point out that Article I, Section 8 of an obscure document called the United States Constitution vests the power to declare war in the […]